Adidas Becomes the Latest Brand to Cut Ties with Kanye West Over Anti-Semitic Remarks

German sports brand Adidas has terminated its partnership with American rapper Kanye West. Adidas said Kanye’s recent comments and actions are “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and that they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness”.

The decision means the company, while reiterating that it does not tolerate anti-Semitism, will make a loss of approximately £217m with the termination of production of items under West’s Yeezy brand. Also, Adidas is expected to stop all payments to the musician and his companies.

In 2020, the partnership between Adidas and Kanye, who has officially changed his name to “Ye”, generated at least $1.7bn in revenue for Adidas, according to Bloomberg.

The decision will definitely have consequential impact on both parties. Adidas is currently grappling with low sales as demand for its products continues to decline. Kanye, on the other hand, according to Forbes, is currently worth $400m, down from $2bn in the magazine’s billionaires list this year.

West’s personal fortune is also likely to take a hit, with Forbes reporting the artist is now worth $400m, down from $2bn in the magazine’s billionaires list this year. West has claimed the Adidas deal was worth more than $4bn and Forbes’ calculations were wrong.

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Kanye has been banned from Instagram and Twitter over posts understood to carry anti-Semitic tones. His longtime talent agency CAA recently stopped representing him. Balenciaga, Gap and JPMorgan Chase have all cut ties with the controversial rapper.

Reacting of the development from Adidas, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany Josef Schuster said the sportswear manufacturer had a special responsibility to cut ties with West given its history in the Nazi era.

“Adidas has to face up to its historic responsibility not just as a German company, but also as a company that was tangled up with and profited from the National Socialist dictatorship”, he said.